Mora: "Let me be very clear, there is no lack of effort on this football team."

Greetings, I had to cover the Monday Jim Mora press conference as Eric's flight was delayed out of Wisconsin, causing him to miss his connecting flight to Minnesota. Apparently, he's trying to rent a car with Steve Martin to get home.

Sorry of the delay on the post, but I wanted to get back to Tacoma after the press conference.

Anyway, Mora seemed not as quite as upbeat as usual, but then again, it's not surprising. A good portion of the questions centered on the team and players effort, or lack thereof.

"It sticks out to a coach," Mora said. "Just let me be very clear there is no lack of effort on this football team."

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That was in response to my question where I asked if lack of effort is easily visible to coaches or fans.

Mora was asked if the guys in the locker room were still buying into what they were coaching.

"Oh sure," Mora said. "Effort is not an issue. People are always going to be bring up the question of effort when you get beat bad. That is not an issue, not at all."

Later in the press conference, Mora was asked if he understood why people would be questioning the effort level of the players.

"I absolutely understand it," Mora said. "I think it's very reasonable for people to question that. When you lose games by some of the scores we've lost then certainly people question that. all I can say, is having first-hand knowledge of it, having been around the league for my entire life, being in the locker room and on the practice on the field every day and on the sidelines with them - effort is not an issue. It's just simply not an issue. And if it was - I've been honest with you guys all year - I'd tell you if it was. And it's not. It's just not. There are other issues, but effort is not one of them.

But I do absolutely understand the question. Shoot if I was sitting out there, I'd be asking it too."Let's move on to Matt Hasselbeck ...

Mora went over the the four interceptions ....

"It looked like he tried to pumped fake and tried to bring the ball back on a string. Most of the times when you do that, it falls to the turf, but they just happened to have a guy there that made the play.

Second interception, the ball was tipped and the receiver slipped.

The third and fourth interceptions, they were playing two-man, which is two deep man underneath coverage and Matt tried to bang the ball in there to make a play. Just like with all of our players we have to help him and give them good play calls versus coverages we anticipate and hope they make good decisions. He knew was about to get hit and he had to get rid of the ball."Is Hasselbeck trying to do too much?

"I think he might have used the term "forcing it" at times or trying to make something happen. The guys a competitor. He's a great competitor. It kills him when his football team is not winning. He's the quarterback so he takes a lot of credit when things when are going well and a lot of the responsibility when things are not going well. Knowing Matt and how serious he is about his craft, he's just going to do everything he can to win, and sometimes it means forcing the ball in there. When you're a quarterback in this league you have the ball in your hands on every play, when you make a mistake it's magnified."

Injuries

WR Nate Burleson (ankle) will be out this week

LB Aaron Curry (hip) is doubtful

RB Julius Jones has re-injured his ribs and injure his foot and is questionable.

CB Josh Wilson (hip) is also questionable

WR Mike Hass dislocated the shoulder on the opening kickoff. He came back and played after getting it put into a brace, but Mora said Hass will likely need surgery in the offseason.

About the Seahawks Insider Blog

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.